On todays four hour charter I ran further up river and went to an area that is mostly shallow, less than three feet deep, and littered with oyster bars. We casted out a typical spread of various baits including live shrimp, mud minnows, and finger mullet. We worked our first spot which looked promising but werent able to connect to much with any size. We threw back several short seatrout and redfish. After deciding that the area wasnt the fishiest that day I turned the boat back towards the ramp and decided on fishing a creek system that holds water well on a low tide. We crept our way into the shallows and found much happier redfish and Seatrout feeding in the swift current. Same bait, same rigs but this time we were hooking fish steadily. We caught mostly smaller trout and redfish but brought home one nice trout at 19 1/2 in long along with some whiting that were by catch. Our one bigger red we hooked and fought unfortunately came free from the hook right under the boat. Water temperatures are slowly returning to normal and the fish are getting back into their usual summertime routines.

As of July 5th the water temperature at the Mayport inlet hovered between 72-75. This is quite a drastic difference compared to the average temperature of 85 degrees. The fish have not wanted to bite out that way so intead Ive been taking clients to go do some back water fishing in the Intracoastal Waterway. By the time we run away from the inlet we are finding water temperatures up to 80 degrees. This little bit of warmer water definitely has the more active fish. We used a combonation of Shrimp, mud minnows, and fiddler crabs to work shallow and deep spots between 2ft and 20ft. We were able to bring home a couple of delicious flounder and a sheepshead for dinner. Although the keepers werent biting well we managed to stay busy catching and releasing several other species including black drum, Seatrout, catfish, and jack crevalle. As the new week begins I am hoping the water temps warm back up and the beaches/inlet fishing will come back to life. Tarpon fishing is on the brain and I am looking forward to their return.

Over the last few weeks our coastal waters have been flooded with cold water from upwelling. We started the day at the inlet and quickly realized the bite was shut down. We picked apart a handful of spots with minimal action until we finally landed in a spot where conditions were right. Once we found the finger mullet we found the fish. In short order we landed two nice keeper flounder and a slot redfish. The flounder measured 18.5” and 15”. The redfish measured 25”. We caught the fish on a mix of live bait and fresh cut bait.